Unknown Paint Match into Spray Can?

Does anyone know if it's possible to take a paint sample to a shop and have a match mixed up into an aerosol? 

Should be possible. Depends on the paint and application. If it was house paint it would be really easy to do- I do it daily. Wouldn't even need to stick it in a spray can. Automotive is a bit tougher but not out of reach of a talented paint guy. 

Yes and no.

You probably have an automotive paint shop nearby that has one of the special cameras. They are a neat bit of kit with their own light source and dedicated software package.

What they do not do is look at a color and calculate the pigments to make a match. They simply compare that color to a database of OEM colors and give the user a list of closest matches by percentage.  If it gives you a match of 95% it will look pretty good. Below that is a crap shoot. Throw pearls and metalflake variations into the mix and it can be a disaster. 

But any shop outfitted with the camera will likely also be set to fill aerosol cans.

I suppose I should have clarified that this is an automotive application, yes. 

I knew of one good automotive paint shop nearby but I think it closed a few years ago. Interesting about it finding the closest OEM match, I suppose that makes sense.

Has the car ever been painted before?  There's a paint code somewhere, +/- age.

In reply to 914Driver :

...yes...

It's pretty generic green and yellow but the normal hardware store stuff doesn't match well enough for the body repairs I'm now doing.